On Oct. 24, the state highway department announced the first snowfall on the Kancamagus Highway, which gives me an excuse to point again to my 2019 story explaining how the state collects roughly 4,000 small trees each year and attaches them to road markers on some high-mountain roads. They stand above the snow and keep snowplow drivers from going off the pavement.
For years my family has commented on those sticks when winter hiking in the White Mountains. One of the advantages of being a reporter is that you have license to go find out about stuff like this!
You should click through and read the story (it’s right here) so you can see all of Geoff Forester’s photos.
Foolishly, I did not make any joke in the story about the Beatles’ “Day in the Life” and that lyric about “4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.” What was I thinking? And speaking of which, check out this great story (here it is) that the Royal Albert Hall objected to the lyrics.
i’ve always loved the whips. Hope they aren’t replaced by plastic poles!
As the story notes, they have been replaced in Franconia Notch – the big advantage for the crew is that the plastic poles can be left up all year, just lowered when the snow is gone.